Everyday Mental Health: What Helps?
Written by Clinical Psychologist, Katie Dobinson
It’s normal for challenging thoughts and emotions to arise when difficult, stressful and demanding changes occur throughout life. What can help is building resilience and findings ways of staying connected to others, so that when tougher times strike you have some skills and supports to help you navigate back to a place of wellbeing.
Small actions taken each day are a wonderful way to build this resilience and appreciate the moments of wellbeing amidst the busyness of life.
What helps?
Mental health and wellbeing is something everyone deserves. Taking small actions each day to look after your overall health, relationships, and mindset can make a meaningful difference to your mental wellbeing. This month we are focusing on understanding what works for maintaining our mental wellbeing, what this can look like, and which evidence-based actions can help you on the road to mental wellbeing.
Remember, what might work best for you might be a bit different to your neighbour, so taking the time to ask ‘what works for me?’ or ‘what helps me?’ is a great place to start.
Myth-busting mental wellbeing
Mental wellbeing doesn’t mean that you feel happy all the time and mental wellbeing isn’t a static outcome that is ‘achieved’ and remains that way. Much like our physical health, which is impacted by our environment, illness, and lifestyle – our emotional health moves along a spectrum.
This means our mental health requires regular daily actions to help us feel well and to get through the tough times when our emotions are more challenging than usual. We all have good days, bad days, and in-between days when it comes to our emotional world. By taking good care of our wellbeing each day, we are better placed to cope with stress and change as it arises.
The Wellbeing Wheel
There are many different ways to take care of our mental wellbeing, and you can think of this like a wheel with many parts. Consider how you might be able to strike a balance in each of the below areas, and see how this can help your overall feelings of satisfaction and emotional health.
- Connecting with others: Humans are social beings, and we need social connection, a sense of belonging, and community. We might experience feelings of loneliness from time to time, but we should be striving for an overall sense of belonging, caring for others, and reciprocal relationships.
- Taking breaks outdoors: Our bodies and minds need sunlight, fresh air, and time in nature. Often the day-to-day grind is busy and future-focused – our minds are often on ‘what’s next?’. Nature has a healing and grounding effect that calms our emotions and helps to regulate the body’s response to stress.
- Questioning unhelpful thinking patterns: It’s natural to experience more anxious thoughts when going through change, so building awareness of these thoughts and learning to challenge our thinking patterns when we are caught in unhelpful worry is core to mental wellbeing.
- Caring for your body: A balanced diet, regular movement and rest is essential for our mental health. Eating nourishing, delicious and healthy foods brings energy, joy and helps with concentration. Physical movement regulates our nervous system and maintains good sleep.
- Seeking help when you need it: It’s understandable that when times are tough, you may need support from others to help get you through. Reaching out to friends, family, or health professionals is essential for returning to a state of good mental health, as well as understanding that the tough times won’t last forever. You are not alone.
Take a look at our mental wellbeing wheel for ideas about small daily actions that can keep your mind in a balanced place. Try out a range of activities and see which ones work for you. Add your own to the wheel as you learn more about what mental wellbeing means for you.
What helps our team!
We asked the THIS WAY UP team, “what helps your mental health?”
Here’s what they had to say…
Regular walks, going to the gym/yoga, and talking out things with trusted people.
Hot showers, sticking to an AM/PM skincare routine, dinner with neighbours, reading a book at the local cafe, being present and mindful whilst cooking, watching comfort shows on TV.
Playing music with my friends. Creativity helps your mental health just like exercise!
A warm cup of tea, enjoyed with a good book and some sunshine.
I like focusing on the positive things in the day and ascribing gratefulness for the things I do have in my life. If there’s ever something negative, I look at it as a learning experience, something that is teaching me something about myself (“why did that upset me?”) and it becomes something that I can work on. Or looking at it from a different perspective. This frame of mind has helped my mental health greatly.
Buying flowers each week for my dining table, playing a great song loud while driving, small friendly interactions with strangers.
Playing sports with friends.
Time in the ocean when I can feel the warmth of the sun on my skin. Eating fresh bread with loads of butter. Planning and anticipating both things!
It’s a combination of different things that works for me when I’m going through a tough time and also in maintaining my mental wellbeing. For me that combination involves prioritising spending time in nature, finding outlets for creative expression, cultivating gratitude for my friends, family, chosen family and community, keeping physically healthy, practicing mindfulness and reconnecting with my purpose or what fuels me.
Having a coffee in the sun, walking and running.
(Morning) swimming.
Listening to music; having a few moments to myself while soaking up the sunshine.
Gardening, taking moments to observe nature, spending time with pets.
Painting.
Trying out a fun new recipe, listening to my favourite albums, getting some sunshine first thing in the morning.
Meditation, rock climbing, moving my body, yoga, connecting with friends, going for a walk in nature, being somewhere beautiful.
Listening to music that I love.
Don’t forget to download our Wellbeing Wheel for more ideas on daily actions to boost your mental health.
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